for those who love good prose...
Suprose aims to encourage and support literature, authors, books and audiences of SA prose. Think of this as a watering hole where conversations begin and friendships develop.

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Welcome to Suprose.

Why Su-prose? "Su" in Sanskrit is a prefix for "good". This is a place where we will discuss and analyze prose (with a South Asian Connection) - that which is good, awesome, excellent, and maybe rant about prose that could be better.

Whether you love prose, are a prose expert, or want to learn more about prose, or to put it simply want to have anything to do with prose, this blog is for you.

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Thursday, July 18, 2002

“Beautifully blends the chills of reality with the rich imaginings of a fairy tale,” says the Wall Street Journal. When Chitra Divakaruni started writing The Vine of Desire she was not really planning on a sequel to her earlier novel Sister of My Heart, but it evolved into one. She made it a point to write Vine of Desire as a book in itself, that someone could just pick up and read without having read its prequel. Stylistically also the two books are different, Sister of My Heart is a simpler telling of a story with two narrators while Vine of Desire is a much more narratively complex work with four narrators, 2 of them being men. There is also an omniscient narrator. Divakaruni once again returns to her touchstone themes of love, friendship, identity and assimilation.Vine of Desire continues the story of Anju and Sudha, the two young women at the center of Divakaruni's bestselling novel Sister of My Heart. Far from Calcutta, the city of their childhood, and after years of living separate lives, Anju and Sudha rekindle their friendship in America. The deep-seated love they feel for each other provides the support each of them needs. It gives Anju the strength to pick up the pieces of her life after a miscarriage, and Sudha the confidence to make a life for herself and her baby daughter, Dayita-without her husband. The women's bond is shaken to the core when they must confront the deeply passionate feelings that Anju's husband has for Sudha. Meanwhile, the unlikely relationships they form with men and women in the world outside the immigrant Indian community as well as with their families in India profoundly transform them, forcing them to question the central assumptions of their lives. Much of the novel is told through letters written back home and their mothers’ responses to them. Anjus sections are written as papers she is writing for her college classesDivakaruni has written this as a book where she wanted to see many voices resonating, where many voices responded to the concept of desire and this comes through very well in the Vine of Desire. She also interlaces themes of how desire is perceived culturally and how it is viewed differently in India versus America. She also manages to adapt thoughts on how immigration changes the nature of desire. Individual desire and the pursuit of happiness become very important in a new country and new environment for the characters in this fascinating novel.

Chitra's newest book of stories is titled The Unknown Errors Of Our Lives. In this poignant collection, featuring tales set in India and America, Divakaruni illuminates the transformations of personal landscapes, real and imagined, brought about by the choices men and women make at every stage of their lives. “The Lives of Strangers” a story from this collection, about a young woman who goes back to India for the first time and her experiences there won the coveted O’Henry prize and also the Pushcart Prize.“The Love Of A Good Man," is a tale of a happily married Indian woman who must confront her past when her long-estranged father begs to meet his only grandson. "Mrs. Dutta Writes A Letter," (selected for Best American Short Stories, 1999), is about an old woman who comes to live with her children. This widow living in her son's Calfornia home discovers that her old world ways are an embarrassment to her daughter-in-law. "The Blooming Season For Cacti," where two women, uprooted from their native land by violence and deception, find unexpected solace in each other; and the title story where an artist is faced with her fiance's past a week before her wedding must make an important decision. In the title story a painter looks to ancient myth and the example of her grandmother for help in navigating her first real crisis of faith. The last story in the collection is based on Gurap, Divakaruni’s village in Bengal, where her mother has now settled. All in all, Divakaruni picks up on current social themes, and themes that are familiar to many immigrants to weave them into a beautiful stories. Knowing, compassionate and brilliantly rendered each of these nine tales speaks to the longing that haunts the displaced everywhere.